I’ve thought for months about a Mark Woods column in the Florida Times-Union newspaper from August about the Jacksonville story today. As he noted, we have to remember well to live well. That includes facing hard history. Today, we join in remembering Eugene Burnam, lynched in Duval County in 1923.
And then what? What will be do next? To honor the memory of Eugene and Benjamin Hart and too many others?
I’m humbled to be present at this solemn occasion to announce a city wide initiative inviting White Christians & Churches in Jacksonville to repent from the history of White Supremacy in Christianity, called the Jacksonville Repentance Project. We aim to humbly build on work already in progress and weave multiracial and interfaith alliances to walk this way of redemption together.
We have to start by telling the truth: Jacksonville is a city built on indigenous lands and has slave labor at its foundations, religion always being a part of that story. Some of the oldest churches in the city were founded and led by slaveowners and some attended by enslaved people. We have to tell the truth.
In Jacksonville, as in other places, White Christians tightened lynching nooses and Jim Crow laws. White politicians who also happened to be Christians made promises never kept. White Christians have gone on voting for politicians who have not kept these promises. We have to tell the truth.
Black Christians and people of color of all religions or none have been the story of Jacksonville to its foundations too. There is a lot for we White Christians to learn from our neighbors, from their history and present experience. Part of repenting will be to listen well.
Ultimately racial reconciliation requires white folks, including we Christians, to recognize even where we aren’t at fault for history, we are responsible for what we do now. And we’ll have to humbly confess we ourselves have committed sins of racism against our neighbors by what we have done and left undone.
But there is hope and there is room for redemption through repentance, learning, listening and repair. Together, Christians of all races can paint a true Christ. That’s the hope of this Jacksonville Repentance Project, of a movement of the Spirit to tell a new story of Jacksonville today and tomorrow.
I want to acknowledge that some individuals, churches, and organizations have already been at this anti-racist work for years. Our conversations have begun with people of all races, with the Jacksonville Community Remembrance Project and 904ward, with OneJax, with local professors, and with Christians who are non-denominational and Catholic and Presbyterian and Baptist and more.
We have connected with organizations you should know about like Be the Bridge of Jacksonville (https://www.facebook.com/groups/BTBJacksonvilleFL) and Second Mile Ministries (https://www.2ndmilejax.com/) in the Brentwood neighborhood. Both of these organizations are providing opportunities for white Christians to learn, listen, and make a commitment to racial justice, and we encourage you to reach out to them to see how you can get involved.
Where the Jacksonville Repentance Project will begin is with an Ecumenical, Interdenominational worship service of repentance. If you would like to learn more or be involved with this effort, and the steps we will begin to take after this service, you can reach out to us at the email address, Jaxrepentance@gmail.com, which I have just pasted in the chat box. You can also access this talk and all the information I shared at the blog link I am now sharing.
At the link you’ll also find suggested reading to learn more on these topics, recent books which have outlined the history of white Christians harming Black, Indigenous, People of Color neighbors in this land, and wisdom for how we can get on the road to redemption together
The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby
White Too Long by Robert P. Jones
Unsettling Truths by Mark Charles and Soong-Chan Rah
Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison
To close, I want to acknowledge all the allies in this work, whether you are religious or not, whatever your race – we know many of you have been at this work, and many more are ready to join, and together we can seek justice. And we are Better Together. Thank you.
Matt Hartley 